Monthly Archives: January 2011

So I’m downtown with a man I just met in a high end martini VIP lounge and something begins to ponder, thoughts begin to well up inside me. What is it that attracts the people here to give everything and sometimes all they have? What makes a man lose all his money here, what make someone lose their dignity here?
So he asked me, “do you think it’s wrong to drink and have a good time.” I replied no, I think it’s expected of all of us. However in some things of excess there is an alternative. So what is it that makes someone spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in this place? As someone who has dealt with alcohol issues I can say other than nearly setting my house ablaze, burning pots, and passing out, there is something that alcohol offers that Most don’t.

I talked to a homeless man a few years back who was an addict, I asked him why he would spend all of his money of drugs when he knew it was wasteful…and he replied, “the drugs don’t hurt”. I didn’t judge. I know what it’s like to have everyone judge and condemn you but the drugs don’t, the alcohol is quiet and the cigarettes are strangely silent. Those opposing your actions seem to be the loudest.

Sometimes we need to step aside and support even when we don’t agree, free will is the first God given Gift after life and they go hand in hand.

We are just hurt people searching. I’d be lying if I said that most churches would be a better place than a bar. But there are more loving places. But please don’t write off the definition of a word because somebody pronounced it wrong. What I am saying is there are many alternatives to church give those a chance if you’ve given up on regular church. Don’t write all Christians off for many bad experiences in the wrong church. I have been hurt and judged by Christians more than anyone else, but I know those churches will soon be the minority. Church is emerging to a place where we can fellowship no matter what sex, race, and sexual preference. Churches are soon to become a place of discussion and questing, worshiping and loving rather than the opposite.

If you have been hurt by church, if you have sworn “never again” I’m asking you to try once more. Let me help you find a church of real people who walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Below are some resources or you can contact me.
Check out Solomon’s Porch a holistic ministry led by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones. Revolution NYC which meets weekly in a bar and led by Jay Bakker. Mars Hill in Grand Rapids with Rob Bell and many more. A great resource is my friends at the emergentvillage.com they can point you to a church that won’t hurt you, but will teach you, and question with you.

Ive been quoted as saying one of the greatest of injustces is the doors of church. The refugees left on the inside of those doors and all the unspoken pain and hurt they feel. Outside standing those who have been hurt by those inside, those who don’t “fit”, those who just havent reached the standard yet. The doors are closing many in, and shutting many more out.

It is the questions that cloud the mind on both sides of this door, inside questions of faith, history and self are deemed heresy and hipocracy.

Questions outside of life choices, human rights, freedom and examples are declared rebellion and dangerous.

A questions is such an unassuming place to begin, we like to think in our society that there is a definte and absolute answer to every questions asked.

The idea of Spirituality in our modern contemporary world is to see what this means to me, at this moment, in this point in my life. It all starts with you and how this word, these gods, these faiths relate to where you are.

Imagine a group of fiver runners, would it be easier for them all to jump on one guys back; that way they can make sure they all run the same path, the same way, and if they stumble they all stumble together. Yes its community orrianted, but so many flaws lay in this type of thinking.

How much more unvarying would it be to each run next to the other, saying, “hey watch out for that hole coming up on the right. If we fall, one can stop and pick that other one up. We don’t run weary because we only have to figure out the best way for us. The other runners are capible of deciding the best trail for them to take, Because I don’t know where that person is.

The bible speaks of this as working out your own salvation (Phil-2-12) the hebrew word for salvation is bedded in a holistic meaning, it is a contiuious living expericance, not a one time thing. It is a process not a one time event, or destination. Maybe it’s time to rethink christianity.

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